Discover the ingenuity and creativity that went into developing the ultimate life-support system -- the space suit. The science of the space suit moved at lightning speed in the 20th century. There were technological hits -- great advancements in suit construction, fabrication, and development -- and misses, those promising experiments that never evolved beyond the laboratory.

Join a panel of Smithsonian curators, scientists, engineers and astronauts as they discuss the modern technological marvel that enables astronauts to live and work in space.

posted 10-26-2010 09:27 AM
As some may have noticed already, the speaker line-up for this event has now been announced:

Moderated by Dr. Cathleen Lewis, curator in the Division of Space History at the National Air and Space Museum, the panel will include:

Joseph P. Kerwin, M.D., former astronaut and the science-pilot for Skylab 2

Dr. Joseph Kosmo, spacesuit engineer, NASA

Amanda Young, curator emeritus, National Air and Space Museum

Dr. Vlodek Gabara, DuPont Fellow, DuPont Protection Technologies

Tickets for seating in the theater have all been distributed but overflow tickets are still available. As noted earlier, this lecture will also be webcast live.

Robert PearlmanEditor

Posts: 27327From: Houston, TXRegistered: Nov 1999

posted 12-20-2010 05:43 PM
If you missed this event, you can now watch it on-demand:

Robert PearlmanEditor

Posts: 27327From: Houston, TXRegistered: Nov 1999

posted 12-20-2010 05:45 PM
The New York Times' Henry Fountain reports about the Smithsonian's spacesuit archive as a follow-up to the "Suited for Space" event.

The spacesuits will get their due next spring, in a traveling exhibition of full-size photographs and X-ray images organized by the Smithsonian. (Most of the suits -- especially their rubber components, which have become brittle over the decades -- are too fragile to be displayed.) Last month, a few of the people who know most about spacesuits gathered at the museum for a panel discussion about the design decisions and trade-offs that went into creating these most personal of space-race artifacts.

"A lot of it is engineering," Joseph J. Kosmo, a senior project engineer with NASA who has designed spacesuits for nearly 50 years, said in an interview. "But a lot of it is art, too."

CastelMember

Posts: 16From: Carmel, CARegistered: Jun 2008

posted 12-21-2010 09:19 AM
Be sure to check out the interactive features A Space Wardrobe and Dressed For Egress. You can zoom in for a closer look at the various suit's details. Fascinating!